The invention relates to the technical field of manufacturing panels used to produce open or closed structures.
The invention has one advantageous application in the manufacture of swimming pools, especially those of the type known as “aboveground” or “onground” swimming pools, but also other structures, especially timber structures such as huts, chalets, crates, furniture, etc.
Various technical solutions have been suggested for producing structures made of wooden panels. This applies in particularly to aboveground swimming pools with timber frames.
Thus, Patent application FR 02.05815 discloses one advantageous solution.
According to the teaching of this patent application, it is possible to produce swimming pools, especially aboveground pools, by using modular wooden panels of a single type, making it possible to obtain generally complex shapes of any kind and, if applicable, modify their surface area or shape.
To achieve this, the pool is built from wooden panels having vertical ends that have arrangements enabling them to be articulatedly linked together in order to constitute a pool having a generally polygonal shape of any kind. In the case of swimming pool applications, all the assembled panels cooperate with means capable of ensuring leaktightness of the inside walls of the pool and its bottom which is obtained through specific earthworks.
These solutions are satisfactory for producing pools having polygonal shapes of any kind.
Technical solutions that have been suggested to date, for example, for producing aboveground swimming pools with timber frames having a generally circular shape, usually require means that are relatively complex to use and are likely to adversely affect the appearance of the built unit, given the fact that these means are located on the outside of the panels and are visible.
The invention has set itself the object of overcoming these drawbacks in a simple, dependable, effective and efficient manner.
The problem that the invention intends to solve is to make it possible to produce, simply and quickly, panels in particular, merely by way of example, with a timber frame and shape them as required by bending, depending on the general shape of the structure to be produced without the need for any exposed visible means.
The aim was also to improve and facilitate the connection of panels to each other in order to produce closed structures such as aboveground swimming pools.
Another problem that the invention intends to solve is to increase the rigidity of panels, also without the need to use exposed visible means.